Reducing head size of Drum for UDS?

Just got the power back on from a tree limb knocking down wires. Dang hurricane! Anyway, cutting the drum at four points will result in a smaller diameter. However it will not be round. I'm thinking the drum top will be irregular resulting in a major air leak. Both of my drums have the kettle insert and they work great. That's my vote.

People have added a thin band of steel inside the drum for it to sit on.

Kettle insert is the way to go! :thumb:

I wouldn't try the squeeze. You want a real tight seal or you will not be able to control the temp.
The best UDS I have made was done by using the bottom of the barrel as the top. In many cases, the Weber lit fits perfectly on the bottom of the drum. I then welded the flat drum lid to the top and flipped it over, cut out the bottom and you are almost done.
However, since you already have a UDS, you prolly don't want to do that.

Johnny_Crunch said:

People have added a thin band of steel inside the drum for it to sit on.

Click to expand...

I have done them this way also. I have never gotten them perfectly air tight with this technique. I got pretty close though by adding BGE gaskets to both surfaces.

4 cuts will not do it my friend, as mentioned earlier, but 36 cuts will get you a lot closer to what you want. That is exactly what i did to not having to flatten out the flange on the weber lid and reshaping it to the drum.

I had a perfect fit on the bottom end of a donor drum for my weber lid. So i removed about 6 1/2 " from both ends of the drum. Cut almost 36 slots about 1 1/2" up to make 35 individual TABS. Bending them slightly inward to get a lead on the ring will allow you to get a perfect fit to the inside of the drum. Hammer and a wooden block will do. I added 3 pieces of aluminum angle for a positive stop. This set up will give me 3 grates to work with if i had to.

Here are the pics that i could not post earlier,i exceeded my limit.

I was never happy with my lid fit so this weekend I did a little chopping on my UDS. I cut the rolled top off my drum with a cutting wheel and tack welded a 20ish gauge strip of metal around the inside of my drum AND the outside of my drum and finally have a perfect fit. It's almost too tight honestly and takes little effort to get it on. B hole tight when its on though.